No Pain, No Gain

As the year comes slowly to an end and a new one is peeking through the horizon I find myself evaluating my walk with the Lord over the past year. One of the areas that I focus on is the time I have spent allowing God's word to change me. Not growth in knowledge through the study or reading of God's word, but true change through the power of the word of God. One of the ways I can evaluate this is by going back through my journal. I often write about my struggles, my innermost thoughts and desires. Hebrews 4:12 says,

"The word of God is full of living power. It is sharper than the sharpest knife, cutting deep into our innermost thoughts and desires."

This verse always brings to mind the story of a patient telling the doctor he doesn't want heart surgery because it will hurt. And as the doctor explains that he won't feel a thing, the patient continues to talk about the pain after surgery. And yet as ridiculous as this seems, often we are faced with the same thing when it comes to God's word. The writer of Hebrews describes God's word as a surgeon's knife. God, the great physician, knows exactly where tumor-like growths of wrong thoughts and desires are lurking. And he knows that those growths will destroy us if they aren't sliced out. Or worse yet severely stunt our ability to live a full life. His word is the instrument he uses to expose those growths, bringing them to light, and showing us how to get rid of them.

But too often we ignore or just plain don't look at what His word says. This often has the same effect on us spiritually as would our ignoring the doctor's advice for life changing surgery.

So as I look back at the year and the pain I may have experienced, I now see the gain of new life. God's word bringing new life to areas that were hidden or dark. This new year I hope to go willingly to the surgeon's table knowing that it won't always be pleasant, but as they say, "No Pain, No Gain."